Home Networking Issues

[Phil from Loreauville]

Hello,
I have a couple of computers I have been trying to network for some time now. They're a couple of Dell XPS 400s with XP Media Edition.
I'm hoping eventually to set up a third computer to act as a file server, but first I need to get the network stable.
In over 2 years, I have never been able to establish a consistent connection, even with a network cable. I've run the network wizard countless times. I can get it to work sometimes, but it never lasts, or 1 computer will see the other but not the other way around. Now I have a wireless router (Linksys WRT54G). Both computers can access the internet, no problems. It's just connecting to each other.
There are a couple of other things. Sometimes we can play multiplayer games, even though neither computer seems to be visible.
And, I've mentioned the file server I want to put up. I plugged in a third computer I had laying around (directly into the router) just for fun. It had Windows98 and I could access both computers from it, access it from 1 computer(mine) but not the other (hers).

I'm no network guru, but I can't help but think I'm just missing simple something here.

[glc]

What are you using for security and firewall?

[Phil from Loreauville]

Windows firewall and AVG free.

[glc]

XP Media is based on XP Pro. This might be an issue:

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